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Abstract

Overall hypertension prevalence has not changed in the United States in recent decades although awareness, treatment, and control improved. However, hypertension epidemiology and its temporal trends may differ in younger adults compared with older adults. Our study included 41 331 participants ≥18 years of age from 8 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1999–2014) and estimated temporal trends of hypertension, awareness, treatment, and control among young adults (age, 18–39 years) compared with middle-age (age, 40–59 years) and older adults (age, ≥60 years). In 2013 to 2014, 7.3% of the US young adults had hypertension. During 1999 to 2014, young adults saw larger increases in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control than did older adults. However, all of these components of hypertension control were lower among young adults compared with middle-aged or older adults (74.7% younger versus 81.9% middle versus 88.4% older for awareness; 50.0% versus 70.3% versus 83.0% for treatment; and 40.2% versus 56.7% versus 54.4% for control). Worse hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in young adults overall were mostly driven by worse measures in young adult men compared with young adult women. More frequent healthcare visits by young adult women explained ≈28% of the sex-related difference in awareness, 60% of the difference in treatment, and 52% of the difference in control. These findings suggest that improved access to and engagement in medical care might improve hypertension control in young adults, particularly young adult men, and reduce life-time cardiovascular risk.